About

Hi there.

I’m Tracy Benjamin!

I’m a food photographer, stylist & blogger based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Shutterbean is a space (started in 2007!) where I can be creative and celebrate my love for life through photography and food. Each week, you’ll find a new recipe, snippets of my everyday life, occasional organizing tips, and home projects. I dabble in a lot of things. You’ll learn that quickly.

With each recipe I share, I break down the steps so you know what you’re in for. My goal is for you to take pride in your work, keep at it, and learn from your mistakes.

Life is better with good food. Don’t you agree?

I should also mention that I love making lists. I make them every Friday.

Here’s one for you:

I love pens. Here are my current favorites.
I’m a thank you note person. Sometimes I forget to mail them, though!
I love ADORE stripes and ANYTHING black & white.
I have failures in the kitchen, yes I’m human.
I can’t STAND mayonnaise.
I love carbs in any form. Except for potatoes au gratin. Def not into those.
I’d love to meet Bill Murray, Martha Stewart & Oprah. Maybe all at the same time. Life goals.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What kind of camera do you use?

I use a Fujifilm X-T3 and mostly my iPhone these days.

How did your love affair with food begin?

My love affair with food probably began the second I was conceived! I’m half Italian which means I’m always thinking about food. When I’m eating breakfast, I’m thinking about lunch. When I’m eating lunch I’m thinking about dinner…It really never ends! It’s always been like that! So yeah…it’s an affair, and I’m totally hooked. Food and I are best friends. We have matching heart necklaces.

How did you come up with the name SHUTTERBEAN?

When I finished art school in 2004, I wanted to carve out a little place online to post my photography portfolio and current work. My husband (who was my boyfriend back then) set up a website and asked me to create a URL. I took SHUTTER, like the camera shutter, and BEAN, my nickname, and combined the two! There wasn’t much thought put into it because I had no intention for anyone to see it, let alone become a food/craft blog! In 2007 I started posting pictures of the food I was making and things I did around the house on the site, and it suddenly transformed from an online portfolio to a food blog/journal. Now it’s my happy place!

What is your favorite kitchen gadget?

Good question! I made a list of my kitchen essentials here if you wanna take a look.

Where do you find your recipes?

Magazines, cookbooks, Pinterest. I also sometimes spend time looking at menus online just to spark my imagination.

Do you plan your menu ahead of time and shop from there?

Every Sunday night, while we are watching TV shows, I take out a stack of recipes I want to accomplish and make a grocery list! I tend to pick out recipes with ingredients that aren’t super exotic or rare because if I don’t end up getting to the recipe, I can find another way to use the ingredients later that week. For example…let’s say I want to make zucchini fritters, but something gets in my way and I can’t make them. I might end up making a quick stir fry and throwing in the zucchini that didn’t become fritters. So usually I go grocery shopping once a week, but there are some weeks where I’m there twice or even three times because I get distracted and forget something. I don’t like it when that happens.

How do you fit in cooking, taking photos, blogging, etc. on top of your daily “must do’s” like taking care of a home and family, working, and finding time for yourself?

Umm. I have no idea! Let’s be honest. There’s no way I could possibly cook & bake every day of the week. During the first year of Cooper’s life, I struggled for balance. I wanted to be creative in the kitchen but I found that I had to be most creative with TIME management! In that year, I learned that the only way I would be able to continue doing what made me happiest was to lower my expectations and sacrifice a few things in the process. I don’t have to do it all, ALL THE TIME. So my laundry is piling up….at least I have these awesome sticky lemon rolls!

I set out to make at least 2 new recipes a week. These recipes are usually simple, totally approachable, and don’t require several trips to the grocery store. With all of the other meals each week, I use trusted recipes that have become part of my rotation….in other words, I can do them in my sleep. Some days we have cereal for dinner and other days it’s quesadillas. But the fact that we have a few new recipes to try each week makes it fun, exciting and new. The best part is that I end up with new recipes to my rotation. Also, my husband helps out a lot. He watches Cooper when I’m working in the kitchen on weekends. And if I’m executing a recipe during the week on the days I’m working from home, I plan something during his nap time or I make something while he’s eating in his highchair.

How does blogging your meals change the way you work in the kitchen?

It changes a lot! You have to be extremely organized and think of everything you have to do before you do it! Because I like to take pictures of the entire process of making a dish, it’s important to take deep breaths and center myself after each step! I usually start with an overview shot of all of my ingredients because it’s a good mental check to see if I am missing an ingredient before I get started. My kitchen turns into a tornado of activity. Messes are made, things are knocked over steps are occasionally made out of order, but somehow I get through it. Some days I’m racing the clock because the sun is going down before my food is finished! My advice to you is to clean up as you go! The process can’t take a lot out of you!

PRESS

Better Homes & Gardens- 6 Page Spread August 2018 Meal Prep

8 Habits to Steal from a Rockstar Meal-Prepper

Sunday Prep for Healthy Lunches – Williams Sonoma Blog

Meal Plan/Back to School Dinners at The Kitchn

How I Organize My Pantry at The Kitchn

Voted one of Time Magazine’s 50 Best Websites of 2013

One of Babble’s Top 100 Food Blogs of 2013

Voted one of Daily Tekk’s 100 Most Interesting Blogs of 2014

Kitchen Tour at The Kitchn

Make Ahead Freezer Burritos at The Kitchn

Interviews:

Mother Mag

The Marin Independent Journal

Mom Inc. Daily

BRUNCH

Best Friends for Frosting

Honestly Yum

Sometimes Sweet

FULL DISCLOSURE

I am a member of the Amazon affiliate program. If you decide to buy something (like a cookbook) I have linked, a small portion of the sale goes to me. Thank you for your support! I appreciate you!

LET’S WORK TOGETHER!

I only do sponsored posts on Shutterbean if they’re a good fit! Are we a good fit? Let’s figure it out. I am also available for food photography & recipe development.

If you’re interested in working together, please email me at partnerships@shutterbean.com. I look forward to potentially working with you!

Contact

PRIVACY POLICY

The privacy of visitors to shutterbean.com is important to us.

Mediavine Programmatic Advertising (Ver 1.1)

The Website works with Mediavine to manage third-party interest-based advertising appearing on the Website. Mediavine serves content and advertisements when you visit the Website, which may use first and third-party cookies. A cookie is a small text file which is sent to your computer or mobile device (referred to in this policy as a “device”) by the web server so that a website can remember some information about your browsing activity on the Website.

First party cookies are created by the website that you are visiting. A third-party cookie is frequently used in behavioral advertising and analytics and is created by a domain other than the website you are visiting. Third-party cookies, tags, pixels, beacons and other similar technologies (collectively, “Tags”) may be placed on the Website to monitor interaction with advertising content and to target and optimize advertising. Each internet browser has functionality so that you can block both first and third-party cookies and clear your browser’s cache. The “help” feature of the menu bar on most browsers will tell you how to stop accepting new cookies, how to receive notification of new cookies, how to disable existing cookies and how to clear your browser’s cache. For more information about cookies and how to disable them, you can consult the information at All About Cookies.

Without cookies you may not be able to take full advantage of the Website content and features. Please note that rejecting cookies does not mean that you will no longer see ads when you visit our Site. In the event you opt-out, you will still see non-personalized advertisements on the Website.

The Website collects the following data using a cookie when serving personalized ads:

IP Address
Operating System type
Operating System version
Device Type
Language of the website
Web browser type
Email (in hashed form)

Mediavine Partners (companies listed below with whom Mediavine shares data) may also use this data to link to other end user information the partner has independently collected to deliver targeted advertisements. Mediavine Partners may also separately collect data about end users from other sources, such as advertising IDs or pixels, and link that data to data collected from Mediavine publishers in order to provide interest-based advertising across your online experience, including devices, browsers and apps. This data includes usage data, cookie information, device information, information about interactions between users and advertisements and websites, geolocation data, traffic data, and information about a visitor’s referral source to a particular website. Mediavine Partners may also create unique IDs to create audience segments, which are used to provide targeted advertising.

If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices to opt-in or opt-out of this data collection, please visit National Advertising Initiative opt out page. You may also visit Digital Advertising Alliance website and Network Advertising Initiative website to learn more information about interest-based advertising. You may download the AppChoices app at Digital Advertising Alliance’s AppChoices app to opt out in connection with mobile apps, or use the platform controls on your mobile device to opt out.

For specific information about Mediavine Partners, the data each collects and their data collection and privacy policies, please visit Mediavine Partners.

At shutterbean.com, we recognize that privacy of your personal information is important. Here is information on what types of personal information we receive and collect when you use and visit shutterbean.com, and how we safeguard your information. We never sell your personal information to third parties.

Mediavine Programmatic Advertising

The Website uses Mediavine to manage all third-party advertising on the Website. Mediavine serves content and advertisements when you visit the Website, which may use first and third-party cookies. A cookie is a small text file which is sent to your computer or mobile device (referred to in this policy as a “device”) by the web server so that a website can remember some information about your browsing activity on the Website. The cookie may collect information relating to your use of the Website, information about your device such as the device’s IP address and browser type, demographic data and, if you arrived at the Website via a link from a third-party site, the URL of the linking page.

The Website may collect IP addresses and location information to serve personalized ads and pass it to Mediavine. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices to opt-in or opt-out of this data collection, please visit http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp. You may also visit http://optout.aboutads.info/#/ and http://optout.networkadvertising.org/# to learn more information about interest-based advertising. You may download the AppChoices app at http://www.aboutads.info/appchoices to opt out in connection with mobile apps, or use the platform controls on your mobile device to opt out.

Mediavine partners with the following data processors:

Pubmatic. You may find Pubmatic’s privacy policy through this link. The data collected on the Website may be transferred to Pubmatic and its demand partners for interest-based advertising. Statistical information and other non-cookie technologies (such as eTags and web or browser cache) may be used by third parties on this Website. Browser settings that block cookies may have no effect on these technologies, but you may clear your cache to delete such trackers. Data collected from a particular browser or device may be used with another computer or device that is linked to the browser or device on which such data was collected.
Criteo. You may find Criteo’s privacy policy through this link. The data collected on the Website may be transferred to Criteo and its demand partners for interest-based advertising. Criteo may collect, access, and use non-identifying data to improve the Criteo Technology and other Criteo products, programs, and/or services. This non-identifying data may include on-site user behavior and user/page content data, URLs, statistics, or internal search queries. The non-identifying data are collected through the ad call and stored with a Criteo cookie for a maximum period of 13 months.
Pulsepoint. You may find Pulsepoint’s privacy policy through this link.
LiveRamp. You may find LiveRamp’s privacy policy through this link. When you use the Website, we share information that we may collect from you, such as your email (in hashed, de-identified form), IP address or information about your browser or operating system, with LiveRamp Inc, and its group companies (‘LiveRamp’). LiveRamp may use a cookie on your browser and match your shared information to their on- and offline marketing databases and those of its advertising partners to create a link between your browser and information in those other databases. This link may be shared by our partners globally for the purpose of enabling interest-based content or advertising throughout your online experience (e.g. cross device, web, email, in-app, etc.) by third parties unaffiliated with our website. These third parties may in turn link further demographic or interest-based information to your browser. To opt out of LiveRamp’s targeted advertising, please go here: https://liveramp.com/opt_out/
RhythmOne. You may view RhythmOne’s privacy policy through this link. RhythmOne uses cookies and similar tracking technologies (such as mobile device identifiers and digital fingerprinting) to provide its services. RhythmOne may use aggregated information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other Websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, please visit the following webpage: http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp.
District M. You may find District M’s privacy policy through this link.
YieldMo. You may find YieldMo’s privacy policy through this link. If you want to opt out of receiving interest based ads from Yieldmo or exercise your right under the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) to opt-out of the sale of your personal information, you may do so through this link.
The Rubicon Project. You may find Rubicon’s privacy policy through this link. If you want to opt out of receiving interest based ads from Rubicon or exercise your right under the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) to opt-out of the sale of your personal information, you may do so through this link. You may also utilize the Network Advertising Initiative’s opt-out page, the Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out page, or the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out page.
Amazon Publisher Services. You may find Amazon Publisher Services’ privacy policy through this link.
AppNexus. You may find the AppNexus privacy policy through this link.
OpenX. You may find OpenX’s privacy policy through this link.
Verizon Media formerly known as Oath. You may find Verizon Media’s privacy policy through this link. You may also utilize the Network Advertising Initiative’s opt-out page, the Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out page, or the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out page to opt-out of the use of cookies for interest-based advertising.
TripleLift. You may find TripleLift’s privacy policy through this link. To opt out of receiving interest-based advertising (including retargeting) from TripleLift’s services through the use of cookies in your current browser and for more information on what it means to opt-out, please go to www.triplelift.com/consumer-opt-out.
Index Exchange. You may find Index Exchange’s privacy policy through this link. You may also utilize the Network Advertising Initiative’s opt-out page, the Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out page, or the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out page to opt-out of the use of cookies for interest-based advertising.
Sovrn. You may find Sovrn’s privacy policy through this link.
GumGum. You may find GumGum’s privacy policy through this link. GumGum may (i) use place and use cookies on end users’ browsers or use web beacons to collect information about end users who visit such Publisher Websites and (ii) link such collected end user information to other end user information provided by third parties in order to deliver targeted Advertisements to such end users.
Digital Remedy. You may find Digital Remedy’s privacy policy through this link.
MediaGrid. You may find MediaGrid’s privacy policy through this link. MediaGrid may collect and store information about end-user interactions with this website through cookies, advertising IDS, pixels and server-to-server connections. MediaGrid was receive the following information: the page an End-User has requested and the referring/exit pages; Timestamp information (i.e., the date and time the End-User has visited the page); IP address; mobile device identifier; device model; device operating system; browser type; carrier; gender; age; geolocation (including GPS coordinates); clickstream data; cookie information; first-party identifiers’; and hashed email addresses; demographic and inferred interest information; and post-conversion data (from both online and offline behaviour). Some of this data is gathered from this website and others is gathered from advertisers. MediaGrid uses this data to provide its services. You may also utilize the Network Advertising Initiative’s opt-out page, the Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out page, or the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out page to opt-out of the use of cookies for interest-based advertising or review their privacy policy for more information.
RevContent – You may find RevContent’s privacy policy through this link. RevContent may collect information about your browser or device, including browser type, IP Address, device type, user agent string, and operating system. RevContent also collects information about the websites you visit through their services, such as date and time of access and specific pages accessed and the content and ads you click on. You may opt-out of any personalization track by opting-out of RevContent’s data collection.
Centro, Inc. – You may find Centro’s privacy policy through this link. You may find opt-out information for Centro’s services through the privacy policy link.
33Across, Inc. – You may find 33Across’s privacy policy through this link. To opt-out of personalized advertising, please visit https://optout.networkadvertising.org/?c=1.
Conversant. LLC – You may find Conversant’s privacy policy through this link. Conversant uses information that does not directly identify you, such as information about your browser type, time and date of visit, your browsing or transaction activity, the subject of advertisements clicked or scrolled over, and a unique identifier (such as a cookie string, or a unique advertising identifier provided by your mobile device) during your visits to this and other websites and apps in order to provide advertisements about goods and services likely to be of greater interest to you. Conversant may use technologies such as cookies and other tracking technologies to collect this information. To learn more about interest-based advertising, or to opt-out, you can visit www.youronlinechoices.eu or https://www.networkadvertising.org/.